Infinity's antibiotic compound blocks the activity of a family of so-called heat-shock proteins that repair damaged proteins.

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Heat-shock proteins have been known to repair damaged proteins and escort those beyond repair to the bodys junkyards.

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He has found, for example, that taken in combination with exercise, a spice called curcumin boosts the production of heat-shock proteins several-fold.

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At the mention of heat-shock proteins, "Julian lit up, " he adds.

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In the early 1990s a scientist at the National Cancer Institute had discovered that an already-existing molecule clings to a receptor on heat-shock proteins, preventing the survival of cancer cells.

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Many of the health benefits of exercise are thought to be due to the synthesis of damage-controlling molecules called heat-shock proteins, and Dr Rattan's group has been experimenting with other ways of triggering these proteins.

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Antigenics focuses on a class of chaperones known as heat-shock proteins (HSP), first studied in this regard by Pramod Srivastava, a cofounder of Antigenics and a cancer specialist at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, in Farmington.

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